Thursday, September 30, 2010

This week we are celebrating apples in honor of Johnny Appleseed's birthday. We've been reading about apples and are even making an apple book in reading groups (it emphasizes color words). We have learned that apples can be red, green, and yellow. Today, we sampled all 3 flavors of apples and each student decided which flavor was their favorite. Then, we graphed the results. We had a 3-way tie!

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

We had our counselor, Mrs. Hayes, come in for our weekly counseling session. She talked about the 3rd response Chester the Cat had towards the bullies. This was a "cool" response. He took a deep breath and said, "If you don't stop, I will not play with you." They learned this is a very good response to use against bullies. They made their 3rd puppet today. Then, Mrs. Hayes acted out the different responses (cold, hot, and cool), and they held up the correct puppet. They even acted out some of Chester's responses.At the end of the day, we had our ice cream party for filling our spirit stick with lassos! We ate chocolate chip ice cream and enjoyed a Max and Ruby video. It was a lot of fun! :-)

Holding up their "cool" response Chester puppetsEating their ice cream

Friday, September 24, 2010

We have been discussing the colors leaves turn in the fall. We have also been reading many fall books, and we even made a fall book of our very own today. We also got to make our own trees! I gave the students a tree that they colored in. Then, they used red, yellow, and orange paint and finger-painted leaves onto the tree. It was very fun, and we have some fabulous trees hanging out in the hallway! We also filled our spirit stick today with lassos. Our behavior has been so awesome lately! We will be having an ice cream party on Wednesday, when we return from our break. :-)

Finger-painting the treesA friend holding up her treeSome of the trees hanging up in the hallwayWe did it! We filled our first spirit stick! Can you see it in the picture?

Monday, September 20, 2010

I just wanted to quickly share one of our newest projects with you. We have been discussing the letter T in Animated Alphabet. We have been coming up with all kinds of words that start with T. Today, we made a turtle. The turtles turned out really great, and they are now pros at following directions! Also, check out some of the "details" they added to their pictures.

3 Friends holding up their turtles (They're all displayed in the hallway)

Thursday, September 16, 2010

We have been working on a book called, "What's All the Fuss?" in reading groups this week. It's a part of a program called "Sing to Read." All of the books in this series are set to song. This helps students learn to read. Also, each book gives students the opportunity to illustrate the pictures on each page. They're really fun, and you'll see several more come home throughout the year.We also played a fun counting game in math. Each student was given a game board and a dice. The dice had numerals instead of dots to help the students with number recognition. They simply rolled the dice and moved their game piece that many spaces. The first person to reach the end was the winner. They loved it!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Today, Mrs. Cooney came into our room and read us a story called, "Are You a Horse?" It was a very silly story, and we loved it. We also loved getting to know our principal. We also had our counselor, Mrs. Hayes, come in for our weekly counseling session. She has been talking about a cat named Chester who is dealing with bully's. First, Chester has a "cold" response towards some bully's. This means he got upset and cried. Then, he had a "hot" response. This means that he got angry and yelled mean words at them. We learned that neither of these responses are good. Mrs. Hayes had the students make Chester puppets. One puppet showed a hot response and one showed a cold one. Next week, we will be learning about a third response.

A friend holding up her Chester puppetsMrs. Cooney reading to the class in her cool cowboy hat

Monday, September 13, 2010

Today, we talked about the 3 basic shapes: squares, triangles, and circles. Each table received a huge shape made from paper. Two tables received circles. Then, I gave each student a magazine. The students searched for their table's shape in the magazines. When they found the shapes, they cut them out and glued them to the big shape. When we were finished, we had shape collages. It was a lot of fun!

Friday, September 10, 2010

Today, we celebrated Grandparent's Day at our school. In the morning, we made special "hugs" for our grandparents. They cut out a person's face that said, "Here is a hug for you! Happy Grandparents Day! Love, " The students signed their name and drew their face on their person. Then, we crinkled 2 strips of paper to make the arms. Lastly, we glued them on the person, and we had a hug!In the afternoon, some of the student's grandparents came to school. We all played Alphabet Bingo. Then, we ate cookies and drank punch. Lastly, Mr. B came to our room, and the students performed some of their songs from music class for the grandparents.

Two friends holding up their "hugs"Some of the students posing with their grandparents

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Today, we used egg cartons and counters to practice our counting. I told the students a number (1-10), and the students placed that many counters into the egg carton. It was a lot of fun and great practice. You could even do this at home! Just get an empty egg carton and use some pennies as counters.

Friday, September 3, 2010

The Topeka Roadrunners came to our school today. They even brought their mascot. He gave all of the students in my class high fives. The students loved their very first assembly. The Roadrunners taught us some fun cheers and gave every student a ticket to come to the game this weekend. They were thrilled. The Roadrunners will be coming back to our school next month to read a book to every class. We can't wait!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Our school is participating in the Fresh Fruits and Vegetables Program. Everyday, our school will be receiving a fruit or vegetable for a snack. I will also be teaching lessons on the importance of eating healthy. We will still have our other snacks available because some veggies might not be as popular, but I'll encourage every child to at least try it first. Today, we had apples. They were delicious!In math, we made another graph. We graphed our birthdays and discussed which month had the most and least. We also learned a special birthday song, where they stand up when they hear their birthday month. We will know our birthdays in no time at all. We also worked on sorting in math centers again. I gave each group something different to sort. We are getting really good at sorting by color, and some groups even sorted by shapes too!